The aim of the OPERA experiment is to verify the neutrino oscillation, directly measuring the appearance of from an initially pure beam produced at CERN. For this purpose OPERA detector is located underground Gran Sasso Laboratory(LNGS) 730 km away from CERN. The detector structure designed to be a hybrid system consisting of emulsion targets and electronic detectors. Total area of the emulsion targets in the OPERA detector is around 110000 m2 which needs fast and reliable automatic scanning systems. For this purpose, two dierent automatic scanning systems were developed in Japan and Europe. For now there are 12 scanning laboratories dedicated to the OPERA Experiment. The Emulsion Scanning Laboratory in the Physics department of METU is one of the scanning laboratories for the OPERA Experiment. The automatic scanning system in METU is European type which is using commercial hardware for easy construction and maintain. Also the laboratory has a unique feature in terms of experimental high energy physics laboratories. The emulsion scan- ning laboratory in METU is the

The thesis concerns the measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA experiment in the CNGS beam. There are different theoretical models that allow for Lorentz violating effects which can be investigated with measurements on terrestrial neutrino beams. The MINOS experiment published in 2007 a measure on the muon neutrinos over a distance of 730 km finding a deviation with respect to the expected time of flight of 126 ns with a statistical error of 32 ns and a systematic error of 64 ns. The OPERA experiment observes as well muon neutrinos 730 km away from the source, with a sensitivity significantly better than MINOS thanks to the higher number of interactions in the detector due to the higher energy beam and the much more sophisticated timing system explicitly upgraded in view of the neutrino velocity measurement. This system is composed by atomic cesium clocks and GPS receivers operating in "common view mode". Thanks to this system a time-transfer between the two sites with a precision at the level of 1 ns is possible. Moreover, a Fast Waveform Digitizer was installed along the proton beam line at CERN in order to measure the internal time structure of the proton pulses that are sent to the CNGS target. The result on the neutrino velocity is the most precise measurement so far with terrestrial neutrino beams: the neutrino time of flight was determined with a statistical uncertainty of about 10 ns and a systematic uncertainty smaller than 20 ns.

Les travaux de recherche présentés dans cette thèse étudient la vitesse des neutrinos mesurée par l’expérience OPERA sur le faisceau CNGS au CERN. Divers modèles théoriques de gravité quantique et d’extra-dimensions prévoient des effets importants sur la violation de la conservation de Lorentz qui serait observable par la mesure de la vitesse des neutrinos. L’expérience MINOS a publié en 2007 une mesure de la vitesse des neutrinos muoniques sur une distance de 730 km avec un écart par rapport à celui de la lumière de 126 ns avec une erreur statistique de 32 ns et une erreur systématique de 64 ns. L’expérience OPERA détecte également des neutrinos muoniques ayant parcourut 730 km avec une sensibilité significativement meilleure que MINOS grâce à une statistique plus élevée due à l’énergie plus élevée du faisceau et à le système de synchronisation entre OPERA et le faisceau CNGS beaucoup plus sophistiquée et modifié dans le but de réduire l’erreur systématique. Ce système est composé par des horloges au césium et de récepteurs GPS spéciaux fonctionnant en common view mode. Le tout permet un time transfer entre les deux sites précis à l’ordre de 1 ns. Un système d’échantillonnage à 1 GHz (fast waveform digitizer) capable de reconstruire la distribution temporelle des protons envoyés sur la cible du CNGS a été intégré au système existant de mesure du faisceau CNGS. Le résultat consiste en la mesure de la vitesse des neutrinos produits artificiellement avec la précision la plus élevée jamais atteinte: le temps de vol des neutrinos a été déterminé avec une incertitude statistique d’environ 10 ns et une incertitude systématique plus petite de 20 ns. / The thesis concerns the measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA experiment in the CNGS beam. There are different theoretical models that allow for Lorentz violating effects which can be investigated with measurements on terrestrial neutrino beams. The MINOS experiment published in 2007 a measure on the muon neutrinos over a distance of 730 km finding a deviation with respect to the expected time of flight of 126 ns with a statistical error of 32 ns and a systematic error of 64 ns. The OPERA experiment observes as well muon neutrinos 730 km away from the source, with a sensitivity significantly better than MINOS thanks to the higher number of interactions in the detector due to the higher energy beam and the much more sophisticated timing system explicitly upgraded in view of the neutrino velocity measurement. This system is composed by atomic cesium clocks and GPS receivers operating in “common view mode”. Thanks to this system a time-transfer between the two sites with a precision at the level of 1 ns is possible. Moreover, a Fast Waveform Digitizer was installed along the proton beam line at CERN in order to measure the internal time structure of the proton pulses that are sent to the CNGS target. The result on the neutrino velocity is the most precise measurement so far with terrestrial neutrino beams: the neutrino time of flight was determined with a statistical uncertainty of about 10 ns and a systematic uncertainty smaller than 20 ns.